FanHouse TonyBernazard

If you've been following the long, strange trip of the New York Mets this season, you know what a tangled, complicated world the front offices of Major League Baseball can be. You understand the frustrations, the egos, the outbursts, and the Machiavellian maneuvering. If you haven't been following the Mets, let me catch you up: "They are the Mets, only they got really bad sooner."

For further analysis, please click the following link and enjoy tonight's Dugout.

Wednesday morning, it seemed a little crazy when the New York Daily News broke a story about the Mets' VP for Player Development Tony Bernazard flipping out on the Double-A Binghamton Mets, reportedly removing his shirt, challenging the players to a fight, and calling shortstop prospect Jose Coronado, "a slang term associated with a woman's anatomy." Surely, every farm director gets a little fired up from time to time when his prospects are disappointing, but this seemed over the top.

For Bernazard, though, it seems like this type of behavior may be par for the course. The New York Post ran a story Wednesday afternoon reporting that Bernazard also recently tried to pick a fight with the big-league club's closer, Francisco Rodriguez. They quoted an anonymous player as saying Bernazard is "crazy."

After signing a four-year, $24 million contract last winter, Luis Castillo was a huge disappointment in his first full season with the Mets. He hit just .245, nearly 50 points below his career average, and spent large chunks of the season on the bench after losing his regular starting job to the likes of Damion Easley and Argenis Reyes.

Ordinarily you'd think the Mets would try to move Castillo, but they've decided to give him another chance, and not just because his contract makes him nearly untradeable. Soon after the season ended, Castillo had his agent arrange a face-to-face meeting with GM Omar Minaya and VP Tony Bernazard in which he took responsibility for his poor showing and pleaded for a chance to redeem himself. From the New York Post:

"He wanted to let the front office know that he was disappointed in how the year went, and promise to do everything he could to get in shape and be the kind of player he had been for 10 years," Minaya said.

It's believed that the Milwaukee Brewers have their managerial search down to three candidates: Ken Macha, Bob Brenly, and Willie Randolph. As to when the Brewers will make their decision, nobody's quite sure, but it probably won't be announced until after the World Series is completed.

Of course Willie Randolph has other offers available to him besides the Brewers job. Both the Colorado Rockies and Washington Nationals have offered Willie a job as bench coach, but it's looking like Randolph has his sights set on the Brewers gig. According to a report out of New York, he's already told the Nationals he's not interested.

Willie Randolph turned down an opportunity to join the Washington Nationals' coaching staff, and if he doesn't get the Brewers' managing job, he'll probably sit out the 2009 season, a person familiar with the situation said.

Randolph, fired as Mets manager June 17, spoke with the Nationals about serving as either bench coach or third-base coach under manager Manny Acta, but he ultimately decided against working under Acta. The two men had a tenuous relationship in 2005 and 2006, when Acta worked as Randolph's third-base coach, because of Acta's strong alliance with Mets general manager Omar Minaya and vice president of player development Tony Bernazard.

It's also reported in the same article that Ken Macha is the front-runner to land the Brewers job, so unless something changes, it looks like Willie will be sitting out the 2009 season.

Carlos Delgado opened the year slow, but in case you haven't noticed, he's been raking the ball lately. Before the All-Star break, Delgado hit just .248 with a .748 OPS. Ever since then, he's been hitting .286 with a .972 OPS. Does his revival have something to do with Jerry Manuel replacing Willie Randolph? John Harper of the New York Daily News and Mets assistant GM Tony Bernazard seem to think so:

No player seemingly has benefited more from change than Delgado. His return to form as a feared slugger, after looking ready for retirement early in the season, already had been so remarkable you couldn't help but wonder if he was somehow lacking motivation under Randolph.

[...] "Delgado is such a student of the game," said Bernazard. "If you're running a good game, he knows. When you're running a bad game, he knows."

It's an interesting theory, I suppose, and hey, everybody is entitled to an opinion. But is Delgado's resurgence even that surprising? Part of the reason his early struggles were magnified was because of his strong finish last year. When you look at the numbers, Delgado has consistently improved his OPS after the All-Star break each of the last five years. With few exceptions, it's a trend that's existed his entire career.

To ignore that trend and instead attribute Delgado's current success to Randolph's absence is both mean-spirited and ignorant. If the two developments are at all related, it's the opposite that's true: Randolph is no longer around because Delgado wasn't hitting.

One thing that was made quite clear this week is that the New York Mets do not run the smoothest operation in the world. The decision to fire Willie Randolph took too long, the way they fired him was sloppy and multiple people have been accused of working behind his back to expedite his departure.

The overarching theme was that there were too many cooks in the Mets kitchen and that the Wilpons listened to all of them before making every decision. What better way to begin rectifying that than by bringing in another guy in a white coat. The Mets hired former Reds GM Wayne Krivsky to be a Special Assistant to Omar Minaya. His main responsibility will be major league scouting. He did some nice things with the Reds, especially taking a shot on Josh Hamilton and turning him into Edinson Volquez, but some poor ones as well. It's probably best if he's a step or two removed from pulling the trigger.

Given the way the Mets operate, you might expect that his secondary job would be sharpening knives to drive into Minaya's back. He'd have to battle another assistant GM, Tony Bernazard, for that honor, however. Minaya and Krivsky actually worked together with the Rangers for a long time, so this is more likely a case of the GM bringing in someone who has his back rather than someone who has designs on his job. Not a bad idea when your job security isn't the strongest.

A couple of days ago, Willie Randolph complained about how he wasn't comfortable with his players fraternizing with the opposing team, specifically Nationals skipper Manny Acta. All of his comments were directed at his players, but does his resentment extend to anyone else? From Joel Sherman's blog for the New York Post:

I think what is more insidious with the Met issue is the involvement of some front-office members, notably Tony Bernazard, so openly joking around on the field for a long period with Washington manager Manny Acta. It is understood within the Met universe that Randolph is not beloved within his own front office and that there is a certain pining for Acta. So to pal around with Acta on the field is not only pathetic when it comes to fraternization rules, it is also a horrible statement toward your own manager. It not only is unprofessional, but undignified, as well.

Randolph didn't mention anyone in the Mets front office, and Sherman doesn't explicitly suggest that Randolph may have been implying as much ... but it does make you wonder, especially considering Randolph has selectively relaxed his stance on fraternization in the past. Could it be he's just a little paranoid about his own job? Seems like a reasonable theory to me.